Stagecoach 2020: Is Stagecoach still happening?

Stagecoach is California’s Country Music Festival, held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert.  Stagecoach Festival is a music festival put on by the same group that holds the Coachella Music Festival.

Amidst the uncertainty of a musical landscape being drastically reshaped by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stagecoach has had to reschedule its annual music festival, originally scheduled for the weekend of April 24th – 26th.  Stagecoach is now scheduled for October 23 -25, 2020.

At the start of the COVID-19 shutdowns in April, Stagecoach Festival made the difficult decision to postpone the annual Country Music Festival until the Fall of 2020.

Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of AEG, the company behind Stagecoach County Music Festival, as well as Coachella Music snd Arts Festival, and several others, released the following statement on March 10, 2020:

“At the direction of the County of Riverside and local health authorities, we must sadly confirm the rescheduling of Coachella and Stagecoach due to COVID-19 concerns. While this decision comes at a time of universal uncertainty, we take the safety and health of our guests, staff, and community very seriously. We urge everyone to follow the guidelines and protocols put forth by public health officials.”

At that point, Stagecoach Country Music Festival was rescheduled to the Fall of 2020, on the weekend of October 23-25. 

All tickets for the original dates were to be honored for the newly rescheduled event, with refund details to be sent to ticketholders who are unable to attend in October.

Stagecoach in October 2020

At the time of the original Stagecoach announcement in April, many spring music festivals were making the hopeful decision to move to the Fall of 2020.  At the time this seemed a plausible solution, as most of us did not anticipate the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world.

Currently, as Summer 2020 quickly approaches, the future of music festivals is as uncertain as ever.  

Almost all large summer events have been cancelled or postponed, and the Fall is still completely up in the air.

Stagecoach is, as of now, scheduled to occur in October.  Many outlooks have this optimistic scheduling in doubt, as any gatherings of that large size may be reimagined or cancelled altogether for 2020.

That being said, the founders of Stagecoach have been creative innovators in festival experiences.  A solution may exist to safely hold Stagecoach Festival in the Fall of 2020. 

Stagecoach 2020 Tickets

Stagecoach currently is selling tickets for the rescheduled dates in October 2020.

All customers holding tickets to the April dates have had their Stagecoach tickets transferred to the new dates in October 2020. 

Stagecoach 2020 Refunds

According to the Stagecoach website, Stagecoach had offered refunds to those who could not or chose not to attend the festival in October, however, the deadline for those refunds expired on June 1.  

From the Stagecoach website:

“Stagecoach ticket holders will have the opportunity to obtain refunds now until June 1, 2020 due to the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus. Please refer to the email you received on/or around March 13, 2020 from the ticketing company that you purchased from on how to request a refund. Tickets purchased for the newly rescheduled dates of October 23-25, 2020 will not be eligible for this refund.”

Read that important final line again: Tickets purchased for the newly rescheduled dates of October 23-25, 2020 will not be eligible for this refund.

Stagecoach 2020 Dates

Stagecoach Country Music Festival was originally scheduled for April 24th, 25th, and 26th, 2020.

Stagecoach Festival is now rescheduled six months later, with dates in the Fall of 2020, on the weekend of October 23rd, 24th, 25th.  

Stagecoach 2020 Lineup

Stagecoach lineup in April was full of the best names in country music.  The majority of that original group is confirmed for the rescheduled dates in October.

The Stagecoach 2020 Lineup includes:

Headliners this year are Thomas Rhett, Carrie Underwood, Eric Church, Brett Young, Dustin Lynch, Dan + Shay, Midland, Alan Jackson, and Jon Pardi.

The Future of Stagecoach Festival

The immediate future of all music festivals is currently in doubt, and Stagecoach is certainly no exception.

Stagecoach is a large gathering, and the simple truth is that we simply don’t know when and how large gatherings ill take place again in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.  With many experts predicting a possibly resurgence of the virus in the Fall, this places even more uncertainty on events such as Stagecoach.  

Smaller music festivals and concerts may begin to reemerge from the pandemic cancelations, but Stagecoach, Coachella and other large festivals may lag behind.

Or, Stagecoach will reinvent itself and pave the way to the “new normal” in large-scale music festivals.

For now, we will have to wait and see!